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The union Unite said that while the SRC are supposedly committed to human rights, they had “failed to respect the human rights of their own employees”.

It means the charity – funded by the Scottish Government, councils and grants – will have to pay £26,550.

The tribunal said both Petra and Stephen were “impressive” witnesses who gave “honest and clear” accounts but they were much less impressed by the quality of evidence given by SRC’s former chief executive John Wilkes and Kes Cameron, their head of finance and administration.

They said of Wilkes, who stood down in March: “He appeared to have a surprisingly poor understanding of the SRC’s policies and procedures and a poor grasp of how some of their actions were at variance with their formal policies.”

They added: “Mrs Cameron was clearly and significantly lacking in experience or understanding of the role of a manager conducting an appeal against dismissal.”

The two employees were dismissed because of “ redundancy ” in June 2016.

Petra had been due to return to work on July 4 after maternity leave.

The tribunal ruled that in dismissing Petra, the SRC failed in their legal duty to offer a woman on maternity leave suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation. They also subjected Petra to indirect sex discrimination in using a competitive interview process to select employees for redundancy.

Petra Kasparek has been awarded £8466 and could be due another £10k for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination